Faculty Artist: Emily Albrink, soprano, with Lee Luvisi, piano

Soprano Emily Albrink's young career has already been graced by collaborations with such conductors as James Levine, Robert Spano, Marin Alsop, and Plácido Domingo and composers such as Jake Heggie and John Musto. Lauded by the New York Times as "delightful and vocally strong and versatile", Ms. Albrink continues to be heard in a wide array of operatic roles and concert works.

Early in her career, Ms. Albrink fulfilled a residency with the Washington National Opera (WNO) as a member of WNO's Domingo- Cafritz Young Artist Program and has since then returned often to the company's roster. She performed in WNO's special gala concert featuring Nathan Gunn, the role of Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel, Sophie in Werther, and Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, a performance which drew high praise from the Washington Post: "Soprano Emily Albrink's pert, pearl-toned Susanna may have been the liveliest, most affectionately detailed performance of the evening". Other roles with the company include Frasquita in Carmen, Second Niece in Peter Grimes, Echo in Ariadne auf Naxos, and Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro.

Lee Luvisi was born on December 12, 1937, in Louisville, Kentucky. His principal studies there were with Dwight Anderson, a pupil of Isidore Philipp. At 14, he was admitted to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where he became a student of Rudolf Serkin and Mieczyslaw Horszowski. Upon his graduation there in 1957 he was appointed to the major piano faculty.

Luvisi made his Carnegie Hall recital debut in 1957, followed two years later by his first appearance with the New York Philharmonic. In 1960, he was a bronze medalist in the Queen Elisabeth of Belgium competition in Brussels.

During the 2000/01 season Mr. Luvisi presented the complete solo piano works of Beethoven in a twelve-concert series in his native city where, a decade earlier, he had undertaken a similar marathon encompassing Mozart's complete solo keyboard compositions to celebrate that composer's bicentennial.